A well know activity of terrorists is to crash a vehicle loaded with explosives or incendiary material into a building or other structure, so as to inflict damage to the building or other structure, and to harm the people in the building or structure. Various bollard constructions and methods of installation have been proposed and utilized in the past. Typically these bollard installations required rather deep excavations, several feet or more, to receive the base for a group of bollards. Alternatively, individual bollards were anchored by boring deep holes to receive the lower end of the bollard.
With the increased threat of terrorism, it has become desirable, and to some extend even necessary, to provide bollard protection to existing buildings in a well developed urban or commercial area. Typically it is desirable to locate the bollards between the building or other structure and the adjacent streets or roadways. Quite often buried below the surface of the space between a building or other structure and the street are utilities such as gas, water, electric, and telephone or other communication lines and related components. Thus, to provide a deep excavation for the base of a bollard system is difficult if not impossible. While the underground utilities, could be moved to make way for the deep excavation for the base of a bollard system, to do so would be quite costly, and considerable construction time would be required. Such construction would not only most likely result in disruption of the utility services, but more so disrupts travel on the street and pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk between the building and the street.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a bollard system which would require very little or no excavation for the base of the bollard system, and which bollard system could be partially or completely preassembled and readily delivered to the installation site for placement and final assembly. It would be further desirable that the bollard system be readily adaptable to different terrain and installation requirements. For instance, it should be adaptable to installation on slopes, around corners, and in other none straight line applications. Further, it should meet installation requirements such as allowing for vents and access to underground vaults, and accommodating fire hydrants and street lighting poles. Further, it should provide for ramps for handicap access to the building or structure, and even for removal of one or more bollards to provide vehicle access to the building when occasionally needed.